Today I thought I’d journey back in time to the 19thC wool shop/yarn store. Why don’t you come along for the ride? When I was a kid in the 1960s, there was an old fashioned draper’s in our village. I used to be enthralled by that shop; all the shiny wooden shelves, and unchanged Victorian […]
Author: PLH
In this month’s ‘Yarnwise’, I took a look at the knitting sticks in the collection of the Bronte Parsonage Museum, here in Yorkshire. And came to some interesting conclusions about the knitting sticks, and the Brontes’ experience of knitting. One conclusion I came to was that at least half of the […]
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“Mrs Jackson of York”
This month, I have followed in the footsteps of the mysterious “Mrs Jackson of York”, an 1840s’ knitting manual writer, about whom very little was previously known. With the help of one of Elizabeth’s descendants, I was able to uncover a fascinating story of an astute businesswoman, whose life encompassed both York and St Petersburg, and whose […]
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Vernal Slow Worms
Yarnwise 51 is out. There, you can read more about our weekend at Dove Cottage and what Wordsworth had to say about the old hand spinners and knitters of Westmorland. There’s also a great article by Lou Butt of Lou Butt Designs, about the Nude Ewe – brilliant project promoting our native British sheep […]
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Miss Ryder Rides Again!
This pattern, based on instructions by Yorkshire knitting writer, Miss Elizabeth Ryder, was originally a downloadable elsewhere on the net. Figured it out last year, and thought I’d put it up for anyone interested in arcane stuff like how to knit an 1860s’ stripey sock. Stockings with vertical stripes were fashionable around the 1790s. Into […]
Two weeks ago today, we were privileged to spend the weekend doing living history at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, where William Wordsworth and his family lived from 1799-1808. Wordsworth was a revolutionary; writing about ordinary people going about their everyday lives; finding poetry in the mundane and his environment. He wrote about beggars, leech-gatherers, the disenfranchised, […]
22nd Dec. 1801 Tuesday 22nd Still Thaw. I washed my head. Wm [William] & I went to Rydale for letters, the road was covered with dirty snow, rough & rather slippery… As we came up the White Moss we met an old man, who I saw was a beggar by his two bags hanging over […]
In June, we are travelling back in time to 1800. At Dove Cottage, in Grasmere, during Woolfest weekend, a small group of us are descending on Mr. Wordsworth’s neighbour, Mr. Fisher, and we hope to spin on the Great Wheel and knit, 1800-style. There may be some undesirable beggars a-calling, as Miss Dorothy Wordsworth describes […]
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The Pointy End
“First Lesson. Stick them with the pointy end.” [ ‘The Game of Thrones’, George R.R.Martin] Inspired by the second series of ‘Game of Thrones’ and Arya with her “Needle”, about to be upon us, I thought it is time to look at the pointy end. Just how pointy an end do we […]
“The Sketch” warns lady cyclists to beware of giving way to a distressed and fixed expression when learning to ride a bicycle. An exceedingly pretty woman has lost most of her good looks after some time of riding a cycle, because she attained the habit of making grimaces… The Sheffield & Rotherham Independent , June […]
PENELOPE HEMINGWAY 